Moritz Erhardt: the tragic death of a City intern
The 21-year-old was found dead in his flat after working for three nights in a row. For the first time, Moritz Erhardt's parents talk about how they had feared for their son – and why the British government must prevent another such tragedy
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Elizabeth Day
The Observer, Saturday 5 October 2013 23.00 BST
イギリスの金融企業で働く実習生の過労死について、長めの記事。
実習生の睡眠は平均で、４時間なんだそうである。
The 21-year-old was found dead in his flat after working for three nights in a row. For the first time, Moritz Erhardt's parents talk about how they had feared for their son – and why the British government must prevent another such tragedy
Share 177
inShare
10
Elizabeth Day
The Observer, Saturday 5 October 2013 23.00 BST
Keen to impress to the last, he worked three nights in a row. Over a 72-hour period, he got a taxi back from the office to his flat in Bethnal Green, east London, at around 5am each morning. He would then shower briefly before returning to his desk. This exhausting ritual is known in banking circles as the "magic roundabout" – so-called because the taxi driver will sometimes wait outside while an intern washes, puts on a fresh shirt and re-emerges blinking in the dawn light.
Although the results of the postmortem are not yet known, Hans-Georg has his own theory about what might have happened. "The lack of sleep caused a seizure and I think that, first in his room, and then in the shower, he had a seizure and then maybe he drowned under the running water because he was unconscious."
An exceptionally driven 21-year-old, desperate to live up to his own high standards, would have done almost anything to succeed. He would, perhaps, have known that 61% of current graduates end up working for the company where they have been an intern. At 21, one has very little concept of one's own limits. And life at that age is surely about testing boundaries, not adhering to them.
Moritz's untimely death threw light on the internship culture at some of the City's biggest financial institutions. There were stories about students being so tired they could barely speak, let alone meet a deadline. At Merrill Lynch, all-night working was a badge of honour – some interns showered in the in-house gym rather than going home. They were, it has been reported, expected to stay long after the senior bankers left, often doing the mundane tasks passed on by analysts – PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets and the like.
The investment banking division was known to be particularly tough. Four hours' sleep a night was deemed to be around average. "You have no life whatsoever," says one former intern. "If you go home at 11pm, it is said you are 'giving up'. You have no hope of a job offer."
イギリスの金融企業で働く実習生の過労死について、長めの記事。
実習生の睡眠は平均で、４時間なんだそうである。
